


Your heart will protect you

by HikariYumi



Series: Touching the sky [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Ace Connor, Alternate Universe - Human, Asexual Character, Communication, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, Hank Being Awesome, Hank Is A Good Father, Kid Connor, Kid Fic, Markus/North (mentioned), Multi, No Androids, Puberty, Sexual Identity, Supportive Hank, Teenage Connor, those things are complicated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-29 09:11:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15069926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HikariYumi/pseuds/HikariYumi
Summary: Connor notices once more that he is not quite like Markus and his friends. But as always he’ll figure it out eventually, Hank is certain of that. Until then, he’ll do his best to support his son.





	Your heart will protect you

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there,
> 
> Thanks again for all those people who kudo’d And left all those nice comments, I’m overwhelmed.  
> After the more angsty instalment I’m here and chose a new direction. I don’t know.. Connor starts to grow up and that is what came to my mind.  
> I’m not sure if and how I will continue this series, but if people want to read something specifically, I’m open for that?
> 
> Kid Connor really grew on me, damn.
> 
> As an information, I do ship adult Connor with Hank sometimes, but I also approve of the headcanon of ace!connor. In this verse he’s more or less uninterested in the whole thing. Maybe it’ll change, maybe not. (I’ll admit that he is similar to me when I was that age... so...)
> 
> Anyway, did someone realise that I have no idea how police stuff works? Especially in America? Ah well...
> 
> Whatever, I hope you like this story as well. Thank you for your support!  
> ~Hikari

Your heart will protect you

Clouds darkened the late afternoon sky as Hank rang the doorbell to the Manfred residence. It would probably start raining soon, that was why he was glad that he decided to get Connor by car instead of letting him walk the ten minute distance back home on his own.

Carl opened the door with his usual pleasant smile, thinning hair lightly sprinkled with green paint.  
“Welcome Hank, do you want to drink something while the kids are wrapping things up?”  
“A water would be nice, thank you.”

The man made their way into the kitchen, aware that it could take up to ten minutes until Connor would make his hurried way downstairs. Hank didn’t mind that, he actually appreciated that his son prioritised helping with a quick clean up instead of just vanishing from the possible mess they’d created together.  
It wasn’t that the thirteen year old was tardy per se, but he’d figured out by now when hurry wasn’t necessary. 

“Hello Hank.”  
True to his word only a handful minutes later, which the two men used for a bit of smalltalk, the five teenagers tumbled into the kitchen. As usual Markus entered first, politely greeting the lieutenant, followed by Josh and North and last but not least, Simon and Connor.

“You’ve had fun today?”  
Hank grinned inwardly at the bunch of kids awkwardly fidgeting under what they perceived as prying question.  
“Yes. I’m sorry that I’ve made you wait, Hank. But I’m ready to leave now.”

Connor’s still mostly stilted way of speaking never ceased to make the man feel warm. Even though the boy rarely ever called him ‘dad’ in public, the affection was clearly noticeable to everyone around.

“No worries, kid. I thought maybe we could have dinner before I’ll return to the department tonight?”  
Hank put his used glass into the sink and slid into his jacket. Meanwhile Carl was preoccupied with Simon who had informed him about his newly colourised hairstyle. He waved them goodbye from the kitchen, smiling in apology as he attempted to pry off the dried splatters of Acryl.  
“Goodbye you two.”

North stayed with Carl as usual while Josh and Markus escorted both of them to the entrance area. The girl wasn’t too big of a fan of Hank as it seemed, in general she wasn’t a really social thing, but the man didn’t care too much.

Instead he happily acknowledged the warm sendoff the boy’s granted each other, relieved that Connor seemed to have found a bunch of friends he could relax with.

~

“I’m different from the others.”  
Things like this never were anything else than statements by Connor. The moment he vocalised his observations he’d already given them serious contemplation, leaving no doubt at all about it.

Hank looked at his boy, pushing around the potatoes on his plate, forehead furrowed lightly. There would be an addition, Connor just needed a few more moments to formulate his thoughts and feelings.

As always Hank didn’t intend to rush him and instead tried to guess what exactly his son was referring to. Eventually something clicked and his eyes took in Connor’s appearance.  
Over the summer Markus’ voice had broken and his shoulders had broadened significantly. If Hank remembered correctly there was even barely noticeable stubble in the older boy’s face earlier. But it wasn’t only him, the other boys had also lost a few of their round childish features in favour of more contrasted structures.  
Even North, who had already looked a bit older than she actually was had matured over the last few months. Only Connor had kept his slender frame, not even his voice had significantly changed, during or after it broke. 

“I noticed it some time ago, actually, but they asked me about it today.”  
Hank gently discarded his cutlery on his plate and turned his complete attention to his son.  
“And what exactly did you notice?”

Connor frowned a bit more before looking up at his father for a second.  
“They allowed me to tell you about it, but...”  
The kid appeared a bit troubled to reveal whatever secret his friends had, so Hank decided to remind him:  
“You know that I never disclose sensible information, neither on the job, nor in private.”

A little smile tugged at Connor’s lips and he lost a bit of the rigidness in his shoulders.  
“Markus and North are in a relationship, for two weeks already.”

That honestly wasn’t what Hank was expecting to hear, but he didn’t let himself be irritated by that.  
“I’m glad that they like each other that much, but I’ve got the feeling that there is more to it, isn’t it?”

Suddenly immensely interested again in his cold potatoes, Connor avoided his gaze as he explained:  
“Simon is harbouring feelings for the boy next door and Josh admitted that he looks at adult magazines sometimes.”  
Quickly Hank tried to puzzle those statements together, figuring out what the kid was getting at. Realisation dawned quickly and the lieutenant carefully coaxed Connor’s eyes away from last nights tomato stain on the table cloth and back up to him.

“But you are not interested in any of that, are you?”  
“I’m not.”  
Finally, the young brown eyes met his again, intently gazing at him, gauging his reaction.

“Connor-“  
Hank actively choose an even softer tone than before, heart beating in worry to say something wrong. That was the last thing he wanted to do, one misstep and the boys trust in him could diminish as quickly as it had built.  
“-it’s alright if you don’t see the appeal in those things yet. Girls, boys, porn... those things aren’t going to run away. If you want you can look how you feel about those things, but never-“  
Hank sent Connor a serious look which was met with rapt attention  
“-never force yourself to do something just because you think you should, you hear me, son?”

The boy’s forehead smoothed out and Connor’s posture slumped in something akin to relief. Hank took a deep breath before raising to his feet.  
“Alright, let’s get this cleaned up, shall we?”  
“Yes. Thank you, dad.”

Hank was pretty satisfied with how this had gone down.

~

It was late Saturday night and Hank just entered the station after a particularly tedious crime scene. For late summer the weather was shockingly cool and the ongoing wind didn’t help much with that.

Most of the department was empty at this time of the day and Hank couldn’t help but envy his colleagues who got to sleep soundly, instead of powering through the night with the help of station coffee.

Detective Reed just returned to his desk from god knows where without sparing him as much as a glance. Hank couldn’t be happier about that.  
After quickly dropping his jacket on his desk chair, the lieutenant looked around for Connor. The kid had opted against joining his friends in their weekend activities and instead asked him to come along to work.

Maybe it should worry Hank more that the boy showed this much interest in his job, it wasn’t such a child-friendly environment after all, but he actually thrived with it. Connor seemed to enjoy just to be with Hank and once in a while hear about cases and other things that were going on, without demanding much attention.

Fortunately the boy managed to deal with his nervousness about the dangers of Hanks work better by now. After what had happened a few months ago, the man had been worried about how things would develop from there, but right now it seemed to be alright.  
Sure, every now and then, Connor would notice him being injured after an assignment gone wrong, but the only real consequences of that was an endearingly helpful boy.

“Connor?”  
The kid’s backpack containing his notebook along with a novel was placed orderly under ‘Connor’s’ desk to not be in any persons way, but the boy himself wasn’t to be seen. It didn’t take Hank long to find him in the station’s break room, huddled together in one of the new chairs.  
Of course Hank couldn’t say it for sure, but not long after Connor’s adoption the room had filled with some furniture that for once didn’t appear to belong to a bar downtown. He suspected Fowler to have had his fingers in this matter, but he never outright asked about it.

The lieutenant crouched down in front of his boy, gently shaking him awake.  
“Hey kid, shall I take you home? You can’t sleep here like that.”  
There might not be school in the morning, but boys Connor’s age needed their sleep and should preferably get it in the night rather than during the day like Hank would after his shift.

Blearily the kid blinked up at him, brain undeniably grabbing for it’s memory of what happened before he fell asleep.  
“Hank... I... no. That’s not necessary. I just watched a documentary while waiting for you to return, I’m fine.”

Ruffling Connor’s sleep-mussed hair, the lieutenant sat down on the chair next to him.  
“Was it any good?”  
“It was rather... educational.”  
Knowing his sons choice of wording by now, Hank didn’t comment and instead only hummed in acknowledgment. It seemed like Connor was still processing whatever topic it had been, he would tell him about it as soon as he’d formed a view for himself.

“Well then, you want to stay here or come and take a look at some files?”  
By now Fowler had discovered the fact that some of his people kept showing Hank’s son cases without context to gain input. It was an understatement to say that he wasn’t pleased about that.  
Naturally, they were quick to assure him that Connor wouldn’t receive any secret information or personal data, until one day Fowler had given in. 

The boy was now officially allowed to solve some minor puzzles as long as they only concerned details that were open for public anyway. Hank was still surprised about this development, but had decided to credit it to Connor working his way into their bosses heart as well.

“I would like to take a look. How was the call-in?”  
The boy cautiously peered up at him, slight worry tinging his voice. Hank grinned and rolled his eyes. “The case would’ve been fine if it wouldn’t have been for some annoying people.”  
Connor’s eyes lit up a bit with silent humour, used to Hanks more anti-social tendencies.

“Oh look at that, our sleeping beauty is awake again?”  
Reed looked up from his phone call, eyebrow raised mockingly.  
“It appears so, Detective Reed” Connor replied pleasantly before following Hank to his desk.

While the kid was busy scanning through some evidence, Hank observed his co-worker who seemed to be still on the line with some authorities, if the faint background music was anything to go by.  
The young man hadn’t changed too much in the last years, he was still obnoxiously arrogant in Hanks opinion, but even he had to admit that work started to wear down on him, soften him in some areas and harden him in others.

Also, even though he wouldn’t say it out aloud, Reed had improved significantly in his effectiveness as well as work ethic. Other than that, though, he was still a prick.

A few metres over the detective raised his gaze again to meet Hank’s, holding it challenging for a few moments before wandering over to Connor.  
Either the boy was oblivious to the eyes on him or he cared more for the folders in front of him, in any way he didn’t pay any kind of attention to it.

Reed glanced back to Hank, offering to his shock a cautious, tiny smile, before his attention snapped abruptly back to the phone where apparently finally someone had taken upthe call.

Well, maybe the detective had change a bit more than he cared to admit. At some point the man had gotten over his initial dislike of Connor, and started to make an effort to be civil towards him.  
The kid himself never commented on that development and instead just went along with it. Perhaps Reed would become a decent coworker at some point, even a nice one if they were lucky, so Hank decided to hold his own provocations back in favour of this possibility.

~

“Do you remember the documentary I watched while you were out on Saturday?”

It was a rather lovely morning, the sun had decided to show itself again after days of rain and clouded grey, reminding everyone that fall hadn’t quite arrived yet.

“I do.”  
Hank nodded as he started the coffee maker for his second round of his liquid breakfast. Connor, inapplicably dressed with neatly combed hair, reached for his lunchbox with carefully constructed ease.  
“It debated the question if the younger generations are scared of sexual relationships.”  
Hank turned around to add some milk into his mug, as well as hide his snort from Connor. He didn’t know how exactly people could get the idea that the youth was scared of engaging in sex, but they surely hadn’t seen the masses of horny teens trying to be inconspicuous while making out in their cars as he did.

“Is that so?” Hank asked instead, interested nevertheless in where this was going.  
“Apparently. It said that more and more teenagers decide to remain virgins until marriage and, especially in asian countries, there’s an uptake of purely virtual relationships.”

Connor stood completely still in the middle of the kitchen, most likely had forgotten that it was completely at odds with his pretended casualness.  
“Oh really? I haven’t heard that yet. What do you think about it?”

Hank really did his best to make this talk as comfortable as he could for the two of them, but he was slightly out of his depth here.  
“It appears that not wanting to engage in those activities isn’t as unusual as I thought it would be. I think I’m relieved about that.”

The kid glanced away, looking so young and vulnerable that Hank couldn’t help but soften a bit. He sighed and pulled Connor into a warm hug, trying to show that feeling like this was nothing to be ashamed of.

“As I told you a few weeks ago, it’s completely alright if you don’t want to have sex. Maybe it’ll come later, maybe it won’t. Asexuality doesn’t mean that you won’t ever love someone, you know?”  
Hank took a deep breath and caught his sons gaze gently.  
“Don’t worry about those it, okay? You’re allowed to figure things out and also change decisions later on. It’s your life, live it the way that makes you happy.”

Who was Hank to be the judge of those things? He really hoped that Connor would never be afraid to talk to him about his struggles and wishes, he didn’t want to be this kind of parent.

“Can you promise me that?”  
“I- I’ll try to do that.”

And Hank couldn’t ask more of his boy. Warmth radiated in his heart as he watched Connor grow in front of his eyes. More than anything in the world he wanted to make sure, that his son could be himself without being afraid of it.

Whoever that turned out to be.


End file.
